Change your iOS application icon runtime.

As of iOS 10.3 – one of the awaited features provided by Apple.

Why you need to change your app icon after app has been live on the AppStore?

There's a sample code waiting for you by end of this article.

Use cases:

  1. Your user purchases the full version of your app using in in-app purchase within the app. You might need to change your app icon from “Free” to “Pro”.
  2. You have some promotions coming in a specific month, you would like to change the app icon when user opens the app in that month. Example: Winter or Summer promotions.
  3. To show the current city as icon for a City Guide application. Example: If a user is currently in Mumbai, you can change the app icons to Mumbai. May be the Gateway of India in your application icon.
  4. And many more. Tell me yours in comments.

How to do this?

Add the following keys inside your info.plist. See the CFBundleAlternateIcons for reference.

<key>CFBundleIcons</key>
<dict>
<key>CFBundleAlternateIcons</key>
<dict>
<key>city_mumbai</key>
<dict>
<key>CFBundleIconFiles</key>
<array>
<string>ic_mumbai</string>
</array>
<key>UIPrerenderedIcon</key>
<false/>
</dict>
<key>city_newyork</key>
<dict>
<key>CFBundleIconFiles</key>
<array>
<string>ic_newyork</string>
</array>
<key>UIPrerenderedIcon</key>
<false/>
</dict>
<key>city_sydney</key>
<dict>
<key>CFBundleIconFiles</key>
<array>
<string>ic_sydney</string>
</array>
<key>UIPrerenderedIcon</key>
<false/>
</dict>
</dict>
<key>CFBundlePrimaryIcon</key>
<dict>
<key>CFBundleIconFiles</key>
<array>
<string>ic_london</string>
</array>
</dict>
</dict>

We have added three alternate icons for different cities in [key : icon_name form]:

You should use these keys at the time of setting the app icon.

city_mumbai: ic_mumbai
city_newyork: ic_newyork
city_sydney: ic_sydney

So once you’re ready with your info.plist file, to change the app icon:

setAlternateIconName(_:completionHandler:)

UIApplication.shared.setAlternateIconName("city_mumbai") { (error) in
 if let error = error {
       print("Error while changing the app icon: \(error)")
    } else {
       print("Icon Set!")
    }
}

This will set the app icon to city_mumbai(i.e. ic_mumbai), if user’s current location is Mumbai.

Primary Icon (Default)
Showing Default Icon
Showing changing the app icon at runtime


To reset from alternative to primary icon:

UIApplication.shared.setAlternateIconName(nil)

Limitations:

  1. User will see an alert every time you try changing the app icon.
  2. iOS only refers to your app resource folder means can’t use dynamic icons.
  3. You can’t use the Assets folder to reference the app icons.
  4. All the icons will be review by Apple’s Review Team before you could change it.

Here is a sample code on Github.

 

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